1. Themes for Discussion
Introduction
Tourism Development- needs, opportunities, scope and Constraints
Tourism Environment Interrelationship: Synergy, conflicts and relevance of
Sustainable Development
Contemporary Approaches in Tourism Planning & Development
Sustainable Tourism Development: Definition, Interpretation and the Guiding
Principles
Sustainable Tourism in Religious Traditions of India
Alternative Tourism and Sustainable Tourism – Inter-relationships and
Differentiation
Tourism Carrying Capacity – the Concept and its Application
Eco Tourism – Thrust Areas, Principles and the on-going Practices
Community Approach of Sustainable Tourism Development
Destination Lifecycle and Sustainable Tourism
Case studies on Sustainable Tourism
Case Studies on Tourism – Environment Inter-relationship:
Tourism in Mountain Environment
Tourism in National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries
Tourism in Coastal Areas, Beaches, Islands
Tourism in Cultural and Historical Sites
Sustainable Tourism Development in India’s Tourism Policy and Planning Framework

2. Tourism Development :
Need, Opportunities and Scope
• Need to Promote Tourism:
 To reap the multifaceted benefits of Tourism; Tourism with its
multifarious advantage may prove to be an agent to holistic
development of any place, region or country
 The benefits of tourism are generally distributed over wide
geographic and social cross sections; part of the benefits also
percolating to the grass root levels. (Thus, obviously tourism
becomes all the more vital, especially for developing
economies/economically backward areas)
 Tourism development needs immediate and urgent attention to
be dynamically able to take advantage of the dramatic growth
prospects of this smokeless and yet mega industry

3.  Tourism development directly and indirectly helps in
protections/conservation of natural and cultural heritage- which is a
key issue – the worldover.
 The need of scientifically planned tourism is pivotal on account of its
extremely sensitive nature (Contingency planning is needed)
Opportunities
 Tourism can be promoted anywhere and everywhere, even in
areas where otherwise no alternate economic activity is even
distantly possible (beaches, snow peaks. Deserts etc)
 Tourism can be promoted, hand in hand with other on-going
economic activities; it rather energises other sectors of economy
 On account of Monopolistic nature of the basic tourism product,
tourism provides considerably even platform for aspiring but
economically/technologically weaker destinations to compete
with the otherwise strong economies.

4.  Certain forms of tourism can be promoted with minimal
investment and infrastructure (eco/rural/trekking tourism etc)
 The contemporary tourism trends aptly indicate the emergence of a
strong market segment keenly interested in pure nature
(ecotourism) and Old World Culture. Since India is bestowed with
fabulously rich and diverse natural and cultural heritage, it is
opportune time for her to adopt a pre-active approach to this
effect.
Scope:
 On account of consistent diversification in tourist motivation, there
will remain ever greater scope for promotion of newer
attractions/destination/tourist activities (Mountaineering –
Traditional Type/Alpine/ solo/traversing/ consecutive summiting
etc; Cultural Tourism – now ethnic tourism, rural tourism, agri-
tourism, farm tourism, tribal tourism, historical tourism/craft
tourism etc)
 Unity of production and consumption of the tourist product not
only ensures more net gains but also lessens financial risks

5.  The ensuing push and pull forces of tourism are bound to grow
stronger, thus sustaining long term benefits from tourism is always
there.
 Law of diminishing marginal utility too is not applicable to the tourist
product; rather the travel experience further motivates the tourists to
travel more (Once a tourist – a tourist for ever)
 Due to the Non consumptive/non-renewable nature, the scope of selling
the basic tourism products to different socio-economic and
psychographic segments of tourists in long term basis, remains open
till such products are finally deteriorated/degraded.
 Due to non economic value judgment and high price elasticity, tourism
products have highly diversified market
 Tourism may help in creating better understanding among
communities and countries. UN in its conference on Travel and
Tourism (1963) especially acknowledged and appreciated tourism to
this effect.

6. Constraints:
 Extremely sensitive nature of Tourism; it is affected by too many
internal and external factors
 Complex nature of the ‘holistic tourist Product’ which is created by
isolated efforts of many developers/service providers
 Extreme diversity in Tourist Demand; the demand is satisfied in bits
and pieces at different stage and places; Also, even the demand
pattern of same tourist may not be same at different place/point of
time/destination)
 ‘Multiplicity of Service Providers/players ; Performance of the
product / overall tourist satisfaction is guided by the performance of
different service providers independently operating from different
locations;
 Multiplicity of Jurisdiction
 No definitive Chain of Distribution
 Prevalence of Common Property Resources
 The Basic Tourist product is not generally in the control of Tourism
Planners/Developers

7. Tourism – Environment Inter-relationship: Synergy,
Conflicts and Relevance of Sustainable
Development
Tourism has very contrasting and contradictory nature, as far as it
impacts are concerned.
 Judiciously planned tourism ensures holistic well-being of the
concerned destination/destination region; on the contrary, if ill
planned, it may lead to devastating and far reaching
implications – often beyond the scope of any corrective measure.
 Irresponsible Tourism may consume the environment (Socio-
economic, cultural and ecological) to the extent of consuming it
up all. Thus, tourism has the tendency to sow the seeds of its
own destruction

8.  Tourism – A New Kind of Sugar
 Tourism – Blessing or Blight
 Tourism – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
 Tourism - Savior or the Destroyer of Ecology and Environment
 Tourism – Conserver or the Exploiter of Natural Habitat
 Tourism – Appreciator or the Abuser

9. Synergy and Symbiosis
 Significantly contributes in improving balance of payment; Leads to
Transfer of external purchasing power to host economy;
 Tourist expenditure denotes Net addition to local economy;
 Generate employment for professional, semiskilled and unskilled
workforce
 High Income and Employment Multiplier
 Helps in abridging the economic gap due to flow of income from
affluent to poorer regions/sections
 Infuses social awareness and leads to improvement in living standard/
health and hygiene
 Activates latent entrepreneurship; Motivates for modernization of basic
infrastructure
 Infuse positive changes in the outlook towards life
 Leads to shift from superstations
 Inculcates the feeling of self-reliance, self-confidence, self esteem and
sense of belongingness towards the social /cultural / natural heritage

10.  Leads to shift from superstations and mis-beliefs
 Inculcates the feeling of self-reliance, self-confidence, self esteem and
sense of belongingness towards the social /cultural / natural heritage
 Helps in rediscovery and revival of lost traditions
 Directly and indirectly supports protection and conservation of
cultural heritage objects
 Creates environmental awareness
 Offers most effective and yet non-consumptive use of natural
bounties/areas/ ecosystems (eco-tourism, skiing, rafting, trekking,
mountaineering and wind surfing etc)
 Justifies the inception of nature reserves (national
Parks/WS/Biosphere Reserves etc (Success story of Kenya is an
example)
 Discourages exploitation of natural areas for extension of agriculture
and other economic activities by offering effective alternate for
sustenance

11.  Motivates the destinations to maintain environmental quality;
since no tourists would like to visit an environmentally degraded
destination.
Conflicts
 Inflation/price hike; neo-colonization; excessive imports;
 Misuse of peoples’ money in tourist facilitation
 withdrawal of labour from other sectors(especially from
agriculture)
 Transforms local economy into tourism-centric economy –
which is too Dangerous in view of the hypersensitive nature of
this industry
 Consequences of Seasonality

12.  poor consistently shifted towards periphery;
 Host society becomes more materialistic and self centred thus
social coherence is eroded/disruption of social institutions;
 Promotes conspicuous consumption patterns among hosts;
 Exerts excessive stress on the support infrastructure and
services thus creating constraints for local people;
 Hosts become secondary citizens at their own place due to extra
attention paid to the tourists; resentment, frustration and ultimately
ill will develops towards tourists and tourism develops in the destination
community, as Doxy has indicated in his Irridex Model (Euphoria
– Apathy –irritation – antagonism)
 Increases incidences of crime and unethical practices

13.  Change in life style(dress/food habits etc)/superimposition of
foreign culture
 commercialization of art and craft, dilution of traditions and
cultural values; Beggar Mentality; consistent shift from
traditional cultural cycles;
 Drug addiction/prostitution and the like evils; overuse of the
cultural objects(i.e., monuments/ museums/historical sites);
 Distorted image of destination culture; Human
Museumifcation; Disregard to rituals and religious beliefs
 Leads to transformation in traditional settlements and
architectural designs

14.  Noise, pollution (Land/air/water), congestion, trash,
overcrowding;
 Overuse of natural areas
 Deforestation/ Selective eradication of unique plants
 Loss of wildlife habitat/ Change in wildlife behaviouristic
 Large scale land clearing to make room for
roads/treks/touristic infrastructure;
 Worst effected are the ecologically sensitive and fragile areas
like high mountains, river and lakesides, beaches, habitats of
rare and endangered plants and animals

15. Need for Sustainable Development:
Sustainable Development has now become the ‘core global concern’.
Why?
 Nomadic Man was living in perfect harmony with nature, using the
requisite resource to meet the immediate/bear minimum needs.
 Due to (ii) Scientific and technological advancements; (ii) population
explosion(iii) ever-growing and diversifying materialistic demands;
(iv) wrongly trying to master the natural processes for own
convenience and comforts, we have jeopardized not only our the
future of generations but the life on earth, as a whole.
 Green house effect, depletion of Ozone Layer, changing meteorological
patterns, increase in geo-tectonic consequences, rapid extinction of
animal and plant species, alarmingly depleting natural resources and
the like problems with no immediate solution have led to our
realization that the situation has reached to the point of no returns.

16.  It is also now aptly evident that the situation can not be
reversed but possibly delayed with honest and judicious efforts.
 Consequently ‘Sustainable Development’, and Sustainable
Resource Use’ have taken a central stage in all kinds of
planning.
What is sustainable Development?
According to World Commission on Environment and
Development (1987), ‘ Sustainable development meets the need
of present generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. Which means careful
utilization of the remaining resources while trying to conserve
them

17.  The philosophical solution to this effect is to ‘Use of available Natural
resources in such a way that they could be used for same reasons, as
long as possible, and that the future generations could also cherish
them, as far as possible’.
or
 Establish synergy between Economic, Environmental and Social
Sustainability; or say mutually supporting relationship between
Planet(Environment) – People (Society) and Profit (Material
Gain/economic gain) is developed in turn is an extremely complex and
challenging proposition.
Relevance of Sustainable Tourism Development:
 Since tourism is a huge user of widely diverse resources ( including
economic, socio-cultural , Biotic and environmental –land, year and
water), it needs to be developed in sustained manner, else it may
cause tremendous loss of resources and ultimately the global
environment.

18. What is Sustainable Tourism Development?
Sustainable Tourism Development meets the need of the present
tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing the
opportunities for future. It envisages management of all
resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic need
can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential
ecological processes. Biological diversity and Life support sysrem
(WTO – UNEP – 2011)
• Sustainable Tourism envisages as leading to management of all
resources that essential economic, social and aesthetic needs can
be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential
ecological processes, biological diversity and life support system.

19. Sustainable tourism is the tourism that
combines high standards of quality with
environmental constraints, tourists and local
residents in a friendly and stimulating manner
which would prove to be a better way to
conduct tourism all over the world. In other
words, it is self-maintaining tourism solving
problems without harm to its surrounding.

20. Key Strategies/Inputs for Sustainable Tourism Development
• Promotion of Eco Tourism (eco-centric Approach)
• Special Interest/Selective Tourism
• Tourism Complex Planning
• Tourism Development according to Carrying Capacity
• Regular EIA and application of remedial measures
• Community Based/Community Approach of Tourism
Development(Community empowerment/Use of
Indigenous technology, Material and Styles
• Wider distribution of tourism benefits
• Synergy with on-going economic activities
• Greater participation of various players of tourism in
Policy/Decision Making (Travel Trade Institutions,
Hoteliers, Transporters, Tourism Developers/
Destination Community/ Tourism Researchers/

21. Contemporary Concepts of Tourism
Planning and Development
• Sustainable Tourism
• Responsible Tourism
• Alternative Tourism
• Just Tourism
• Appropriate Tourism
• Eco-Tourism
• Community Based Tourism
• Green Tourism
• Rural Tourism
• Wildlife & Wilderness Tourism

22. Eco-Tourism
• Ecotourism is environmentally responsible
tourism
• Eco-tourists are generally interested to visit
natural areas least effected from human
intervention
• Eco-tourism may involve eco friendly
adventure/ethnic/trekking activities; thus in such
cases eco-tourism becomes the indicator of
behavior of specific tourist segment as also their
deep respect toward the nature and natural
processes.

23. Conclusion
• Indeed the Alternative Tourism imbibes in itself a
form of tourism activity which is more
environmentally friendly, socially compassionate and
aims at exploiting tourism with minimum negative
impacts and maximizing the positive impacts.
• It envisages ensuring that the socio-economic
benefits are percolated down to the lowest levels of
society, and hence, proper policies may be worked
out for effectively promoting Newer forms of tourism
for mitigating poverty among lesser developing
economies.